Pope Francis encourages public breast-feeding

The pope sends a simple but powerful message to breast-feeding moms everywhere.

Breast-feeding is back in the news today, but this time it's not the supermodel Gisele who everyone is talking about. It's the pope.

Pope Francis sent out a strong message to breast-feeding mothers in his recent interview with La Stampa, a daily Italian newspaper. When asked about the problem of world hunger, the pope recalled an encounter he had with a woman and her crying, hungry baby:

“There are so many children that cry because they are hungry,” the pope said. “At the Wednesday General Audience the other day there was a young mother behind one of the barriers with a baby that was just a few months old. The child was crying its eyes out as I came past. The mother was caressing it.”

“I said to her: madam, I think the child’s hungry.”

“Yes, it’s probably time…” she replied.

“Please give it something to eat!” I said.

“She was shy and didn’t want to breast-feed in public, while the Pope was passing. I wish to say the same to humanity: give people something to eat! That woman had milk to give to her child; we have enough food in the world to feed everyone.”

Now, you could certainly argue that the pope's overall message here was one about world hunger and compassion for our fellow humans. But there's no doubt that the underlying message is one in support of breast-feeding — and public breast-feeding at that.

If your baby is hungry, he argues, give her something to eat. And if the pope advocates public breast-feeding (even in front of the him,) I would certainly think he would approve of it in other — less pontifical — occasions, such as say at Target, on a plane or at the mall.